German-American Discourse on Politics and Culture

February 28, 2014

Facebook's $19 billion acquisition of Whatsapp seems to have disturbed many Internet users in Germany. I guess coming on the heels of the NSA spy revalations Mark Zuckerberg's move was too much to bear. Too much even for the respected, left-leaning liberal daily newspaper, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which published a cartoon depicting Zuckerberg as a grasping Jewish octopus intent on capturing every computer:

Anyone familiar with Nazi propaganda will immediately recognize the image.

February 25, 2014

Over the weekend I watced a video of Ukrainian president Yanukovich's security forces gunning down unarmed protesters. The brutal bloodshed was widely reported in the international press and condemned by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. The terrible incident was also reported in Germany - but with one notable exception: there was no mention of the murder of protesters in the left-wing publications. Instead, the protesters were described as roving bands of "fascists" who were incited by the United States. The leftwing daily Junge Welt ran screaming headlines: "Right-Wing Putsch - Fascists in control in Kiev." The success of the mass protests is being depicted as a severe security threat to Russia. Even worse, the "fascists" are committed terrible crimes:

(Throughout the country several dozen statues of Lenin were toppled, along with monuments commemmorating the victory of the Soviet army in World War II."

Of course, the protests had nothing to do with the crackdown on civil liberties in the Ukraine, or the massive corruption of Yanukovich and his close circle who looted $$billions from the national coffers. Rather, as learn in NachDenkSeiten, the whole thing was orchestrated by the United States:

(The protest in the Ukraine was well funded and well-organized: We have details from expenditures. Worldwide the US spends over $5 billion to expand its influence. The National Endowment for Democracy in Washington DC channeled $117 million to the Ukraine. The US envoy to the region, Nuland reported about this a press conference.)

What types of evil, fascist enterprises did the Americans fund? NachDenkSeiten helpfully provides a detailed list. Here is typical grant:

Independent Association of Broadcasters$39,271 To raise awareness of human rights, protect freedom of speech, and educate youth about the role of media in democratic society. The Association will organize its third annual “Kinomedia” festival, which will include film screenings and public lectures in seven Ukrainian cities. The Association will also organize a short film competition for youth, focusing on media freedom, democracy and human rights.

For the German left, any effort funded by the US to promote parliamentary democracy, transparency, and objective journalism = Fascism.

Today new documents surfaced in Kiev that outline plans for an even greater assault by Yanukovich against the protesters. Again, no coverage by the left in Germany. Instead, there is constant reporting on how the US is behnd the growing mass protests against repression in Venezuela.

February 23, 2014

DId Mark Zuckerberg just throw away $19 billion of Facebook shareholder wealth? He bet the farm on the messaging app, but will Whatapp's 450 million users embrace the new owner? Facebook is an advertising company, and even though Zuckerberg has stated that Whatsapp will remain a separate, independent entity many users in Germany are not convinced and are already jumping ship:

(In the course of one day Threema has doubled its user base. The app allows users to send encrypted messages. In the last 24 hours at least 200,000 smatphone owners have installed the service, the company told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. So according to its own information the service has 400,000 users. The reason for the short-term growth is the acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook. Whatsapp is by for the leading messaging app in Germany . Here more than 30 million peopel use the service. After the Facebook announcement many are looking for alternatives. )

Of course 200,000 is a miniscule number, but it could be the tip of the iceberg. Ever since the NSA scandal many Europeans are wary of the Internet giants Google and Facebook, and the Whatsapp deal only intensifies the general paranoia about online privacy.

Cloud-based services are not nearly as "sticky" as operating systems such as Windows or iOS - it is quite easy to switch, and there are other apps out there like Threema that have attractive security features.

So did Zuckerberg make an expensive mistake? Was this a desperate attempt to keep Facebook from becoming another MySpace? Time will tell. There were many critics of his acquisition of Instagram for $1 billion - and that turned out to be a bargain.

February 15, 2014

Okay, this is hard to understand. A prominent SPD member of the Bundestag admits to buying photos of underage boys in various stages of undress (but not engaging in sexual acts) and suddenly the brand new Grand Coalition in Berlin is in crisis mode.

(Edathy is under suspicion of buying child pornography. According to Die Welt Edathy was a customer of a Canadian online shop that offered this type of material The investigators are looking into indications that Edathy purchased some of the material over a server of the Bundestag.

The Social Democrat apparently used his credit card. The online purchase involved "posing videos". These are films of scantily clad or nude children and teenagers, but no sexual activity.)

Edathy caught wind of the fact that he was being investigated, and resigned his seat in the Bundestag - ostensibly because he was "suffering from exhaustion."

The German agriculture minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, resigned on Friday after it was revealed that four months ago, as interior minister, he tipped off another senior politician to the criminal investigation of a prominent lawmaker.

The investigation involves allegations that the lawmaker, Sebastian Edathy of the center-left Social Democrats, possessed videos and pictures of under-age boys, although it is not clear whether they would be considered child pornography. The German news agency DPA said on Friday that prosecutors in the city of Hanover suspected that Mr. Edathy ordered the pictures from 2005 to 2010, seven times by mail and twice online.

Don't forget, the investigation into Edathy was heating up just as the make-up of the Grand Coalition was being negotiated. Edathy was a high-profile politician who logically could have been tapped for a cabinet position or some other senior-level post. Friedrich did everyone a favor by removing Edathy's name from consideration - sparing Merkel -and the nation - a great deal of embarrassment.

Evidently, Friedrich decision to step down is only the beginning. More heads are expected to roll in the next days.

February 08, 2014

Frank Schmiechen, of the Hamburg daily Die Welt, spent four months living in California. We was so smitten by the "das Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten" that he published a love letter to the United States:

(You received me with open arms. You approached me with openness and curiosity. You took me in for four months. Even though you had no idea who I am, what I can do, what I want. That didn't matter. You answered all my questions, and politely ignored my strange accent and mediocre English.)

Many in Europe scoff at how friendly people are in the US - a sign of superficiality. For Schmiechen it was a breath of fresh air:

(Your friendliness is often seen as superficial. Most of all by us Germans. I wish we had more of this in my homeland. I like friendly surfaces. Maybe your friendliness is just a sign of good upbringing. And behind all the friendly banter there is often an intelligent mind.)

Schmiechen is not blind to the social inequality, the struggles of many just to keep from falling deeper into poverty. But he admires the risk-taking, the pragmatism and can-do attitude of Americans. Not to mention the celebration of success here - in contrast to the deep suspicion of success in Germany.

In the end, it's the fact that America is constantly re-inventing itself that he most admires:

(It seems that you're always able to keep changing, to grow, to improve. That's what I like about you. And please don't get out of sorts by those in old Europe who always know better. In the end you'll probably once again have to help out out of a mess.)

To be sure, four months is not a great amount of time to get to know another country. And California is not representative for all of the vast US. Would Schmiechen have been so enthusiastic if he had spent a winter in Utica, New York?

Still, it is illuminating to read through the many comments to this piece. Those who have traveled to the US or lived here for some time for the most part share Schmiechen's positive view. More common, however were comments like this from a "Serpentine":

(Too bad that Herr Schmiechen chose to highlight only the good side of life in America. Not one word about the 50 million Americans who survive only because of food stamps. Not one word about the same number of Americans without health insurance. Not one word on the crumbling infrastructure like in a Third World country. The list goes on and on, but, hey, in the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king.)

Given the current sentiment in Germany, publishing this glowing tribute to America in a major news outlet is truly an act of courage.

February 04, 2014

Last year I blogged about former plagiarism defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg's New York Times op/ed piece where he complained that despite Germany's economic power it played no significant role in geo-politics; its was, in his words, a powerless "pygmy", standing by while other nations did the heavy lifting.

Well, things may be changing in Berlin. Last week Germany's federal president Joachim Gauck opened the annual Munich Security Conference with a powerful speech (English / Deutsch) which outlines a new, more robust and muscular role for Germany in the world. No longer would Germany just be a sanctimonious "observer" as global crises play out:

We cannot hope to be spared from the conflicts of this world. But if we contribute to solving them, we can take a hand at least in shaping the future. It is thus worth Germany’s while to invest properly in European cooperation and the global order.

And there are times - for example, to prevent genocide - where military intervention is called for:

Brutal regimes must not be allowed to hide behind the principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention. This is where the concept of "responsibility to protect" comes to bear. This concept transfers to the international community the responsibility to protect the people of a given country from such atrocities when their own government fails to do so. In the very last resort, military means can be used, after careful consideration and a weighing up of the consequences, upon authorisation by the UN Security Council.

And, with respect to the NSA spying scandal which has resulted in spasms of anti-Americanism in Germany, Gauck has a more balanced perspective:

We feel surrounded by friends, but hardly know how to deal with diffuse security threats such as the privatisation of power by terrorists and cyber criminals. We rightly complain when allies overstep the mark when they use electronic surveillance to detect threats. And yet, we prefer to remain reliant on them and hesitate to improve our own surveillance capacities.

Gauck's words were echoed in follow-on comments by defense minister Ursula von er Leyen and foreign miinister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as the New York Times reported:

Ms. von der Leyen, the first woman to hold the defense minister post, spoke days after telling the newsmagazine Der Spiegel that Germany might send more soldiers to bolster the French presence in Mali, meant to prevent the disintegration of a country that has been a growing base for Islamist militants.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who held the same job in Ms. Merkel’s first coalition, weighed in on another dispute on Saturday, reiterating a demand that President Viktor F. Yanukovych of Ukraine fulfill his promises to protesters seeking a closer bond with Europe.

Mr. Steinmeier cast that call as part of a new German role in Europe. Echoing United States officials and other foreign policy makers who have encouraged Germany to act in accordance with its status as Europe’s largest and the world’s fourth largest economy, he added, “Germany is really too big to just comment from the sidelines.”

Predictably, the German left reacted with outrage at Gauck's speech, labeling the former Protestant minister a "war-monger". Writing in Der Spiegel, Jakob Augstein suddently found nice things to say about outgoing foreign minister Guido Westermann, a man Augstein has repeatedly savaged over the years:

Augstein and others would prefer to remain comfortably on the sidelines - pointing fingers at the United States, blaming the US for they Syrien civil war, the Israeii- Palestinian conflict, the turmoil in Egypt. Let's face it, the US is responsible for all the problems in the world.